“Contrails” is episode eleven of season one of Manifest.
The episode opens back on Flight 828, and Captain Daly navigating the storm. Then to the hanger when Daly is telling Vance he didn’t have a choice; the storm appeared on top of them. Vance says that over the past five and a half years, the only thing out of the ordinary that anyone can find are Daly’s manoeuvres before the plane disappeared. Later, Cal speaks to him and asks if he has any wings and thanks Daly for bringing them home.
Ben brings Cal back home; it seems Cal also heard Ben and Michaela talking about the major. Grace wants to know if Ben can have Cal tomorrow as well. Cal says he can’t; Ben is going to be busy helping the man from the plane. Ben says that, worst case scenario, it’s Michaela’s day off and she can look after Cal.
Michaela is at work; she has a vision of the blizzard again. Then Jared appears. She’s been avoiding him. Because they slept together in the previous episode, “Crosswinds”. They talk privately; Michaela can’t be the other woman and she doesn’t want to hurt Lourdes.
Ben is looking at his board when Michaela comes home; he explains what Cal said but doesn’t know which man. Then he gets a call from Daly. A logical man from the plane. Daly wants to meet. Everyone is blaming him for Flight 828 and he thinks he can prove otherwise but needs Ben’s help.
Daly takes Ben to the airport and to a hanger, where he gives Ben the folder on every official document on record. Which are all lies. There’s a simulator in the hanger and it’s set up with what, according to the NTSB, were the exact flight conditions. Except they aren’t; Daly says this storm barely qualifies as weather. Ben can remember what the turbulence was like. And the date of the report in the folder is the day they disappeared.
Ben is with Michaela; the co-pilot confirms Daly’s story and that Daly is the only reason they survived. Ben has read the file and the minutes of a Congress investigation. There was a meteorologist, Roger Mencin, scheduled to testify. He never showed and he promptly retired. He was also perfectly positioned to observe the storm. Daly and Ben head to see Mencin. He says he can’t talk about this; he swore under oath.
Michaela is looking after Cal when Autumn knocks. She needs Michaela’s help clearing her name.
Mencin is explaining to Ben and Daly about dark lighting, a high energy atmospheric discharge that releases ionising radiation. You have to be very close to detect it. The DOD didn’t like the idea of magic lightning and it was suggested Mencin retire. He figured everyone on the plane was dead and his testifying wouldn’t bring them back. They also made Mencin destroy all his data. Ben realises he didn’t.
Daly, who is being blamed for everything, no matter what anyone thinks happened, is getting fixated on clearing his name and the person he thinks was responsible for everything, Fiona Clarke. He doesn’t seem willing to listen to alternative suggestions.